The future will offer less snow and shorter winters. For those who live off the snow, they depend on finding a solution to the challenges. How can these challenges be met? – That is a big question. It is difficult to have a good answer to that, replies Pål Golberg. – Very simple answer to that, says Hans Christer Holund. Easy or difficult to answer – either way they are the same. There is one solution to the problem they will face in the coming years. Namely to change the season as he is today. – I had done it, I had decided that the World Cup season this year would start on 25 November for the cross-country skiers. The national opening at Beitostølen was already underway the weekend before. The last race of the season is in Lahti, Finland, from 24 to 26 March. And here the runners are in agreement: The season should not end so early in the spring. – There aren’t many ski runs I’ve gone on in April in my life, but it’s definitely the best skiing month. You would have had the opportunity to move the season, if you saw that it meant more ski races and fewer cancellations, says Golberg. FUTURE?: Golberg, here training in a ski tunnel in Sweden in September. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB And the proposal is not just about finishing later, but also postponing the start. – One has to postpone the season. We don’t go skiing in April, but there are quite a few places where skiing is good in April. If you postpone the season by two weeks, I think someone has solved the problem, says Holund. – Is it a good solution for the runners too? – Yes, I think so. We have not skied much before we are thrown into it and have to perform. So there is a bit of stress, and the snow is thin then. After all, it is a matter of luck every year that we can organize here at Beitostølen. I would probably have done it, I had decided. IN THE SUNSHINE: Nyenget didn’t need a hat under five miles in Kollen in March. Photo: Ørn E. Borgen / NTB Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget believes that it will be easier to store the snow for races late in the year, than to have to store it through a summer in order to have earlier races. Therefore, he also believes that spring must be used. – March and April are perhaps the best months to be a skier. Then the weather is nice and warm, it’s nice for the audience and I think it will be much easier for the organizers to get things done. You can see how big a challenge they have in organizing it now in mid-November, says Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget. – On the edge of parody The proposal to the runners sounds easy enough to carry out, but there is one problem in particular which means that cross-country manager Espen Bjervig is not one hundred percent sold. – Much of the reason why the season starts so early is the commercial time called Christmas. Where we buy Christmas presents. And of course making the sport of skiing visible means more sales of skis, and so on. There is an argument for the skiing industry and skiing to take part in it, he says to news. CHRISTMAS: Bjervig points out how important the Christmas season is for the ski industry. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB It still does not mean that he thinks the proposal for the runners is bad. For this year, there has been little to say in favor of starting the season early. – This year in particular, it is on the verge of parody. We travel around the country and beach and go on a white strip somewhere, and then you know that when you get to March/April, there are ski slopes everywhere. At least on the northern calotte, and in the USA and Russia. It is much easier to have the season beyond that way. There is something pushing forward, says Bjervig. – But again, it has little meaning for us here and now, but it may have something to say for athletes and contracts with equipment suppliers, and things like that. Of course, if Christmas is not a winter activity month, that they lose a lot of skiing there, it will affect everyone who is part of the sport.
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Pål Golberg and Hans Christer Holund with a drastic proposal – will move the cross-country season – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
